Reality Isn’t…Really.

Recently I came across Donald D. Hoffman’s work, research that has literally and happily blown my mind. Well, not really – what Don Hoffman has done for me is quantify my suspicions through our culture’s accepted mode of knowingness: reductive science.

I would like to introduce myself to Dr. Hoffman, a professor of cognitive science at UC Irvine because I arrogantly believe that my “Beauty as Action” schtick is an integral piece that is quite important if his hypothesis is indeed correct. So what is Hoffman saying?

He posits that what we perceive as real as reality is not. Human perceptions of reality are all illusory. Our perceptions – the sight of a chair, the chair, the smell of a rose, your cat – all are a sort of “shorthand” for what is really going on out there. Among other things, he cites evidence stemming from the many double-slit experiments and post-corpus callosum surgery outcomes.

Further, consciousness is primary. It is consciousness that creates, and literally manifests all matter. And we are not just talking about “The Secret” here.  Although that meme was useful in introducing the concept to the many, it is rather like saying sugar is as nourishing as protein. Nope.

An aside: I wish I weren’t so poor at math. I want to study theoretical physics, and it is all based in math! I don’t really understand why numbers and their interaction are so critical to understanding the Isness.  I want to take a class where someone explains that to me!

If we – and I do – accept that it is not matter that is primary and influences consciousness, but the other way around, consciousness is primary and constructs matter,  then the implications for what each individual is focusing on – is conscious of — is very, very critical.

This is why everyone should be focused on true beauty.

And not on the negative, gloom, and doom.

When I was running my own businesses it was a hard lesson to learn, but it always paid off: focus on the strengths, not the weaknesses. In the early days I always wanted to fix what was weakest, what was wrong or dysfunctional. I wanted to go there first, fix it, and put our limited resources there. It is a natural inclination, right?

But what I found was that strategy ended up robbing the stronger, well-functioning activities of their needed nourishment (read money, people, attention), and they were the items (products, systems, people) that were keeping the entire business afloat. Should I just ignore what was dysfunctional and possibly weakening the whole system? Absolutely not. But I also learned not necessarily to go there first. Make sure all the workhorses, excellences, and functional aspects have what they need, then look at the gloomy and doomish bits and see what love and nourishment can be brought to bear there. It is amazing how approaching a problem or weakness from a place of strength will facilitate the ability to find a workable solution or at least a way to improve the situation.

What does this all have to do with Hoffman and the nature of our reality? Everything! Everything. If we are all just walking around housing a consciousness that is busy creating everything – including time and space, oh by the way – and every other consciousness is out there doing the same thing, and all these creations are colliding and colluding and conflicting, then…

we have what we start to perceive as “reality.” Only it is only a limited, shorthand perception of these energetic intentions.

We want it focused on the beauty. On that which is in harmony.

But then, I am not a theoretical physicist, nor a cognitive scientist.

I am just a curious consciousness that names itself artist, author, and, yes… cultural creative.

Aloha. Shalom. Namaste. Aho! Amen.